Common areas are kept clear–shoes are in one spot, jackets belong in the front closet or garage, backpacks are on a bench, and there are 3 landing spots that the family knows to use. (I used to have 1 drawer per child, but this system has evolved over time as children have moved out and have become responsible for their own papers and items.)
I don’t micromanage private rooms, but I do work with each child to do quarterly decluttering and cleaning.
We have a little clean/dirty magnet (linked below!) that goes on the dishwasher and can be switched to indicate whether or not the dishwasher needs to be unloaded.
Everyone loads the dishwasher when the magnet indicates that the dishes are dirty. Nothing goes in the sink or on the counter when the dishwasher is ready to be loaded. Dishes do not get left around the house or in the dining room–everyone is responsible for their own and pitches in to help with the meal prep dishes.
When the dishwasher is clean, we all unload the dishes together. We created various systems around unloading the dishwasher based on who was living at home.
There are hampers or simple laundry baskets in each room and clothes go right in the basket instead of on the floor or on the furniture in the room. These hampers are usually separated into light and dark colored clothing for easy sorting on laundry day.
On Thursdays, Eric washes and folds the laundry. When our children were young, they helped sort and bring the clothes downstairs on laundry day. As they got older, they did their own laundry on assigned laundry days.
We have a separate basket in our closet for items that need to be hand washed. We wash these monthly or on an “as needed” basis when the basket is full.
We keep our main trash and recycle bins in the garage, and there are individual bins in each room of the house. On Saturdays, we gather the trash from around the house and take it to the main bin.
On Tuesday nights (the day before trash day), we take the bins to the curb. We have a calendar reminder set for our family so that we don’t forget and need to rush to take the trash out in the morning.
We recycle as we go, and our family has a document from our city posted near the recycling bin to show what items can be recycled and what items do not belong in the bin. We have a little box right outside the door to the house for glass items that are recycled separately. Eric takes this box of glass items to the recycling center once it is full.
We keep a magnetic writing pad on the side of our fridge. When someone opens up the last bottle of sauce, for example, they need to write on the list “____ sauce” so that it will be included in the next grocery shopping trip.
I do a weekly shopping trip and generally rotate between 3 local stores depending on the household needs. Before each grocery trip, we take everything out of the fridge and make sure that it is clean and prepared for incoming food. This weekly fridge clean-out only takes 10 minutes or less.
Once the groceries have been brought home, the whole family puts the items away together. We take one or two trips in from the car and everyone knows exactly where to put fridge, pantry, and freezer items.
Items that are purchased in bulk are stored in the pantry or the deep freezer. We write the purchase date on the item before putting it into the storage area. This helps us to use the oldest items first.
We have a basket (or neat pile) of blankets in the main living room and in our upstairs family room. Each person knows to refold the blanket and put it back in its original spot when they are done using it.
When it comes to board games and toys, these are organized by type and our family organizes these together so we know where things are located. For example, the train tracks set is in one basket so that it doesn’t get mixed in with other toys. In the board game cupboard, games for little children are on one shelf, and more complex games with small pieces are up high.
Hope this helps! I’d love to hear some of your favorite home systems in the comments. 🙂
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My favorite way to manage all my kids’ toys is toy rotations. I have three large totes. Each one has a selection of toys and books and every few months we rotate which toys and books are out. It’s like Christmas every time we rotate and the kids are excited to play with the “new” toys! It’s also a great time to get rid of toys that they’ve outgrown or broken.
Love it!! I just shared your idea with our daughter and son-in-law, since they are jumping into the toy-rotation stage of life. Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi April, thank you so much for all the tips. I love listening to your podcasts. I have another suggestion for shopping lists. I use the app “Anylist”. The shopping list part is free and you can share with anyone else that has the app. Our whole family uses it. When anything needs to be added to the list, anyone can add it at any time and it updates everyone’s list immediately. Not more forgetting the list at home when you go shopping, or wanting to put something on the list when you’re out and forgetting what it was by the time you get back home to the list. When someone buys something from the list, they can tick it off and it’ll update everyone’s list so you don’t end up with doubles.
There is also a paid section that I use for meal planning. It works so well.
Have a lovely day
Yay! Thank you! I had thought of doing a shared Google Doc or something, but this looks amazing! Just downloaded the app. 🙂
Thank you for the option to be able to read the posts in addition to listening to the podcasts. Although I prefer to listen, during busy periods I am thankful for the written synopsis.
So glad the synopsis was helpful for you! Thanks for the feedback!
I totally recommend a label maker! Now all the boxes in our cupboards and on our shelves have a label on them and this way everyone (not just me!) knows where to put things. Making sure every item has a place makes it so much easier for anyone in our family to put something away. You don’t have to waste brain power guessing where it goes, and you know where to find it again easily. I wish I’d bought one years ago!
Great idea!! We used one years ago, but I think there are several places we could utilize one now. Thanks for the reminder!